Did you ever wonder where the term "blog" came from?

By David McClelland – Special to The Oakland Press

Did you ever wonder where the term "blog" came from?

Well, it turns out that "blog" is a contraction of the term "web log" and is a type of web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events or other material such as videos or graphics. Blogs are usually shown in reverse order, the latest first.

OK, but where did blogs originate? I found that the modern blog evolved from the online diary where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Tim Berners-Lee, father of the World Wide Web, first posted a web page in 1992. Justin Hall is credited being the first to begin a personal blog in 1994 and is considered one of the earliest bloggers while a student at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, when he launched "Justin's Home Page".

A typical blog contains text, images and links to other blogs, web sites, etc. Then, there is micro-blogging where very short messages are posted. The ability of readers to leave commentary about blogs is usually an important element of this form of communication. At the end of 2007, there were already 112,000,000 blogs posted online. The number has to be many, many times that today. Now, we better understand blogs.